Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Fort De Soto! I had heard so much about it, I couldn't wait to get there! I was amazed to see that there was no entry fee into the park. After photographing birds at rookeries the past two days, I was itching to get the birds in the water and feeding. Fort De Soto did not disappoint!

I spent time on various subjects the different days I was there, but it was a great spot to get the Egrets/Herons, Royal Terns, Skimmers, Oystercatchers and other shorebirds. Osprey put on some amazing shows for me, and two Swallow-tailed Kites one day were life birds, and even allowed for some photos (which I did not expect).

Mornings at the North Beach (northern) Lagoon provided wonderful pre-dawn colours, and calm waters throughout the morning. My life Reddish Egrets put on a show here, but would rarely stay in one spot for very long. The North Beach Lagoon was great in the afternoons as well! I heard that it was really slow for Fort De Soto, and I got a feeling it would pick up considerably later into spring, but I still had a great time.

I didn't spend much time at other locations in the park, like east beach, the fishing piers, or mullet key etc. So there was probably a lot more to explore! Since it was early in my trip, I didn't want to spend too long here, as I had a lot of places left to visit.

I found that Fort De Soto was far and away the most "user-friendly" for someone like me (sleeping in my car). There were lots of clean bathrooms, warm water in the taps, no entry fee - and I was able to sneak into the campground each day and have a shower! A Walmart just outside the park was a great place to get food, and I slept there until my last night (when i was asked to leave at midnight!).

Overall it was very exciting for me. Lots of life birds or species I'd rarely seen before. I would be very excited to see how much better it can be further into migration and/or the breeding season! It still lived up to the lofty hype I had heard so much about before I visited!

Considering the way the wind spirals around the core of these tropical system, i'm of the mind that it's very unlikley we will see anything tropical from this storm. We experienced very strong NORTH winds on the west side of the system yesterday, which directs birds AWAY from us.. (especially tired seabirds, which would not fight the wind).. .

Seabirds are generally caught in the EYE of the storm, or blown in on the EAST/South-east side of the storm... Where powerful south to SE winds are pulling them up and inland. We need more of a track like hurricane connie to pull birds directly into Ontario.

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Either way, it's still fun to hope for something. Often times with storms like these, the powerful weather on the WEST side of the storm (that we got) drops large numbers of arctic migrants like shorebirds/jaegers/arctic terns etc in places like ours. Probably why so many people reported great shorebirding around lake Ontario yesterday. The storm is just tooo big for them to fly over, and they're forced to stop early for us to see!

We'll just have to keep on hoping! TD 12 has formed off the cape verde islands. Will be at least a week before we really have a guess where it's headed:

M on the map (actually the location of C).. I visited this spot 2+ weeks later at the end of my trip.

I decided to make my 2nd trip to gatorland a 2nd article/note. Why? Because it was almost a different place! Since I made my visits early in the breeding season, each passing day can bring new birds into the rookery and different species starting to nest. Since my first visit, Tricoloured Herons had started nesting, more Snowy Egrets had arrived and the first Cattle Egret was searching around for nesting spots. The big difference for me (and the reason why I went back) was the spoonbills!

During my first visit, there was a few young Roseate Spoonbills that arrived at dusk, I managed a few shots, but they wern't terribly active. After reading that some adult Spoonbills had arrived (3 adults, along with a few subadults and young birds), I knew I had to go back! I hadn't had much luck with this species throughout the trip so far - and it's a very desirable species.

Around 4:30pm the 7 Spoonbills arrived and put on a good show for the photographers present. All birds were stealing sticks from nests, fighting with each other, flying around and landing on some open prominent perches. One adult male (photo below) had some beautiful yellow on his head, to go along with the stunning pink plumage.

Everytime a Spoonbill was around, photographers would take pictures of it. It was like we were moths to the flame! But I could really understand why, amazing colours to go along with the amazing adaptations make them a stunning bird to see!

The next morning I spent some time working on flight shots, and tring to get another species I was still missing - the Cattle Egret! I didn't get anything terribly good of the Egret, but I did get a few shots! Limpkin were also more active in the area, along with some Barred Owls I heard early in the morning before the gates opened. I would love to be at a Rookery for a whole season, to see the changes take place, but I don't think it will happen for a long time! It was very much worth another visit though, 2 weeks after my first, to get some different photos. In my last few minutes at Gatorland, a Swallow-tailed Kite flew over low - anything can happen in Florida!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

My 2nd day in Florida, I decided to visit another Rookery right after the first and see how they compared. I arrived very early in the season for St. Augustine, so I wasn't sure what to expect here at Gatorland. From early on however, I was very impressed! Mike Goodwin was there to get people inside at 7:30am sharp, gave some helpful directions and let us loose on the birds! The Great Egrets were really displaying, some had eggs, and a very few already had chicks in late Feb. I figured it would be good, and I was right!

As I'd read elsewhere, getting clean shots of birds at Rookeries with so much clutter/bushes/other birds, can be tough! With the large number of birds around though I was eventually able to get the clean shots I wanted of displaying Egrets. The nesting birds were in high breeding condition, with wonderful lime green on the lores of the Great Egrets. With the birds being so very tame, it is also a great place to get creative with your photography.

In the afternoon, thousands of birds arrived at dusk to roost in the rookery. The light gave out early, behind a large cloud bank, but I was still able to get a number of flight shots and eventually worked on pan blurs as it got dark. A few young spoonbills were around and fairly active, giving good photo-ops in flight and landing.

The rookery was much larger than St. Augustine. I had also heard that Gatorland was about a month ahead on the breeding schedule - due to it being farther south. That helped on my trip, since I was pretty early. Although the Gators and Crocodiles were captive, I still really enjoyed seeing these amazing creatures up close. A free wireless internet connection inside was also great, allowing me send some photos home to my parents and girlfriend, and let them know how everything was going!

Since it was early in my trip and gatorland was fairly expensive for a single day ($30 USD), I decided to stay for the single day before moving on! I did make it back for another day near the end of my trip, but I wrote a separate article for that visit!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Not much on the go today, but I did have some odd pictures to share. Jenn and I saw some unusual fish while out with family a few days ago... Rockwood C.A. near Guelph:

First up was this tiny catfish.. There were several, that were hanging out in a thick clump of weeds, and none of them seemed to be going anywhere terribly quickly. Managed a few shots:

Admititley, I've never known too much about Fish, and haven't really tried to figure out what these guys are. Any help?

One other unknown fish from a similar area:

Again, another small jobby that sure looks fairly distinctive. A fun pattern on the tail. Anyone know what it is?

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Not much else news to report. I've been blabbing on about the possible rarities in the mid-summer period, but in all honesty, no matter what type of drought/breeding year/dispersal we could possibly predict, the weather has just been too darn stagnant to really get anything moving. Where's the winds? Where's the storms?! Those Little Blue Herons need something to blow themselves northwards!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Yes, it's true. Alan and I are heading back to James Bay... Rough dates of August 13-25th... But this time, we have the razor-sharp eyes of Mark Jennings as well! Here's the maps:

Southern James Bay

and......

Location of Netitishi Point. Note Moosonee to the west, Hannah Bay to the East, and the Ontario/Quebec Border

We are primed to find vagrants galore. Since this location has a few things going for it:

Southern end of the bay: --- During fall migration, everything going south (waterbirds and lost vagrant shearwaters) can pass right in front of us.

Smaller mudflats: better odds of getting closer to shorebirds, and easier time keeping an eye on the water than elsewhere on James Bay (Ontario side)

Netitishi "Point" - is actually a bit of a point on the southern shore of the bay. If we get some south winds, we expect to see movements of birds along the shore and grouping up at our "point"

Island of big trees: -- lots of small tree's to the south, but the elevated beach ridges with large trees should act as a magnet for passerines that don't totally enjoy the soggy stunted spruce south of us.

Sandy/Rocky flats: the flats here are easier to walk on, and I truly expect to find some unique shorebird species that take advantage of the sandbars off Netitishi (eg./ we saw a LOT of Sanderling in November here... More than they're seeing now at other locations on the bay).

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I also have high hopes of trying to do more serious photography while up there. Hopefully I'll have lots of photos to post when I get back!

(looking for the other one up there)

(will want to improve on my shorebird photos up there!)

Hopefully see some of these guys up there as well!

By the time I get back, I actually think I can have my highest "year list" in Ontario ever... Not that I ever try to hit a high number (I'm still missing Sora)... But it's fun to keep track. But it DOES seem odd that I could break last years 286 by the end of August. How can I bird for 10+ years in Ontario, and suddenly see so many more birds?

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While I'm away, I've set up the blog to auto-post some old stuff from Florida (just to get it back online)... and to keep things running. I'll try and post the highlights from the trip as soon as I get back!

Lesser Frigatebird (so rare it hurts, considering it was so close to Ontario as well) Short-tailed Hawk (I guess it's possible, but this is MEGA rare.. A Nov record from Whitefish Point)

Roseate Tern (possible in Ontario, but I dislike these "sight records" from the Great Lakes... Someone MUST photograph one in Ontario to be accepted!)

White-eared Hummingbird (not gonna happen)

Golden-fronted Woodpecker (see comments for White-eared Hummingbird)

Possible (to overdue) species for Ontairo:

Reddish Egret (look familiar?)

Glaucous-winged Gull (so overdue, it hurts my gull-watching spirit)

Gull-billed Tern

White-throated Swift (ooold record)

Hammond's Flycatcher

Couch's Kingbird (less likely than the others)

The rest:

White Wagtail - Michigan has a remarkable 3 records, which would make you think it could occur in Ontario (including 1 5km from Ontario) - yet these are virtually the only freakin records for eastern North America... It's possible, but would be really crazy!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Noteworthy is at least 1 Long-billed Dowitcher, 1 probable Long-billed Dowitcher, and 1 possible Short-billed Dowitcher... I've never enjoyed fall (adult) Dowitchers... Well that's not true, I like Short-billeds... i've just never enjoyed the thrill of hunting for LBDO's at this time of year.

Was still nice though:

Mega Long bill, rich colour, blackish back and gave the right calls. 1 of 2 (the other one didn't call, but i'm fairly sure).

Also had 4 Green Herons and 5 Black-crowned Night-Herons here (alongside the egrets and great blues)

The strangest observation was a Goose near Wheatley, that (i thought) was feeding from a garbage bag.....

Until I got closer... When I noticed it was attacking cars that drove past!!! Seemed to be trying to defend the garbage bags!!! Was a very odd sight. Don't believe me? Check for yourself!

You'll notice that there is also some sort of domestic Mallard like thing in the driveway.... I really have no idea what is going on there... The video is pretty short, but as I drove past, the goose actually ran behind the car with it's wings out!! (until I was officially chased away)... What an odd goose

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Anyways. Birding.

I didn't have much else of note. hmm... I then went to Cedar Beach, where I was really shocked to see the tiny beach loaded to the brim with Ring-billed Gulls (and other gull/tern friends):

(click for full size)

Lots of baby Bonaparte's around... There were at least 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the flock, all starting to molt into 2nd basic plumage.

(1 of 3 seen)

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I rounded out the day checking Holiday Beach and area, and even moved (inland) up to the Canard River, where I saw nothing of note. I swear I looked at over 100 Herons today, including numerous G egrets and Night-Herons... Yet nothing unusual! We MUST annex this Pte Mouillee place

Ken Burrell and I checked out Mitchell and Grand Bend Sewage Lagoons yesterday (or 2 days ago?).. And didn't see a whole lot at either one.... I think we are in a slump between adult and juvenile migration (lots of Juvenile yellowlegs and least sandpipers were seen).

Our highlight was 2 Juv. Wilson's Phalaropes @ Grand Bend. I tried to take a video of them...

I know the video isn't great, but it was taken at like 95x zoom (yes, 95).. 35 of which is optical, the rest digital. Just trying it out for when I find a really rare bird in the future. I kind of enjoy "documentation quality" video.

Yesterday (the actual yesterday) I had some work in eastern Ontario. I checked Presquile around 9am very quickly... Mainly due to the fact there were NO SHOREBIRDS on the beach. I actually walked the marsh trail twice and heard no rails/bitterns either... Kinda slow?

I then did the KFN property on Amherst. Had 1 Pectoral, 1 Least and 2 American Bitterns in the main lagoon, and was too lazy to continue further to the sandbar. It was pretty slow.

I did see an Upland Sandpiper on Amherst, which was nice. Won't see too many (any) more of those awesome birds...

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Doing more birding "today", which I may post about "tomorrow"... Since the above news is pretty dull, here's another fun video I took recently. Nothing of note really, just some fun watching birds.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Now it doesn't seem to be on any listserv at the time of writing (it just showed up on ebird itself)... But with the huge drought in Texas (and somewhat in florida etc)... Maybe Wood Stork should have been on the radar all along? The species is known to make massive flights to find feeding places when their home range dries up...

This could either be the vanguard to a movement of this species, or just a mistake in the ebird reporting process?

But I'm tired, it's late, and the post I put online today was just gulls, so I decided to do a little extra. If I learn anything new, I'll update!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Here's a quick look at the first 20/25 days of August..... In my humble and somewhat odd opinion

August shorebirding should pick up, with more rare and uncommon things to find (and more diversity).. Although the OBRC records show that mega-crazy vagrants (like stints, redshanks etc) are clearly lacking for the first ~20 days of this month. Not that it couldn't happen still at anytime, but it's just what the patterns currently show. At the very least, you'll have more fun with the higher diversity.

James Bay could still turn up just about any shorebird species, if you're up there!

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As August gets rolling, banding stations have turned up some really rare passerines in August... I'm not sure if it's because most of us aren't looking? Or they're too hard to find without nets?? But lets look at two sites quickly:

Thunder Cape: has August records of Townsend's Warbler, Common Ground Dove and Virginia's Warbler.

Long Point (Tip) has August records of Cassin's Sparrow and Cassin's Finch

Obviously not a lot, but those are some mega-rare passerines! Just something to keep in the back of your mind... A few passerine species move out in huge numbers by mid August (eg, Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriole) - Long before most people notice passerines are moving at all!

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And hopefully the southern dispersal of waterbirds is a good one this year. Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets have been recorded in good numbers on/around Lake Erie already this summer... Now hopefully some cross into Ontario. Just about any southern Heron is possible!

(one of the easier birds I still need for ON)

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The last week of August seems to be when things really start happening with full-blown migration. Hawkwatches, Lakewatches (Jaegers!) and an obvious increase in mega-rare birds on just about every front.

It usually really starts to switch over (in the Great Lakes region) in the August 23-25th time frame... so I'll ignore it for now!! It's a totally different beast.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Here's a fun list... Birds on the Ohio checklist that are NOT on the Ontario list.. This was inspired by a post on the Ohio listerv from Bill Whan, who had just done his own personal update of the Ohio checklist. :

Sitta pusillaBrown-headed Nuthatch

Campephilus principalisIvory-billed Woodpecker

Picoides borealisRed-cockaded Woodpecker

Sphyrapicus nuchalisRed-naped Sapsucker

Selasphorus sasinAllen's Hummingbird

Stellula calliopeCalliope Hummingbird

Aeronautes saxatalisWhite-throated Swift

Crotophaga aniSmooth-billed Ani

Conuropsis carolinensis Carolina Parakeet

Phaetusa simplexLarge-billed Tern

Scolopax rusticolaEurasian Woodcock

Calidris ruficollisRed-necked Stint

Vanellus vanellusNorthern Lapwing

Parabuteo unicinctus Harris's Hawk

Egretta rufescensReddish Egret

15 species total. 2 are extinct (13 left).....

Of the list, there are 5 that I think would be VERY unlikely to occur, or prove, in Ontario.. Those are:

Harris's Hawk (captive origins would be questioned)

Eurasian Woodcock (hasn't even been recorded in Newfoundland for a LONG time)

Smooth-billed Ani (numbers declining in Florida)

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

and potentially Brown-headed Nuthatch, which is a very poor flyer, although may be the best on this list of 5 to occur......

Of the last 8, 6 are pretty good candidates (or downright overdue) for Ontario:

Reddish Egret

Red-necked Stint

White-throated Swift

Calliope Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird

Red-naped Sapsucker (banders required for this and the Allen's)

The last two species, Northern Lapwing and Large-billed Tern are certainly possible, but would be VERY rare birds indeed...

imagine seeing this thing in Ontario

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Plus a feature that has been lacking recently.. Here's some rare bird photos, not taken by me!:

There have been a few White Ibis moving up the east coast recently, but nothing I'm getting too excited about (yet)... The post-breeding dispersal of young Herons seems to be just starting, which will hopefully increase our odds of getting some in Ontario!

Shorebirding has been pretty dull so far in Ontario this fall (at least south of James Bay).. Thunderstorms really help ground rapid-migrant adults, and we barely had any rain...... Things will keep picking up in August though!